Tournament Report - Wizards' Tournament I, 29th March 2017 - by Brother Scott: "Back To The Beginning"

Editor's note: Apologies for the recent lack of content (I'm in the middle of a major international relocation).  Stay tuned for a series of tournament reports from recent major events.  Today's excellent instalment by Brother Scott below!

On November 10, 2017 Magnus de Laval revealed his idea for the Wizards' Tournament.  A pre-n00bcon warm-up tournament that was *truly* old school: only Alpha cards allowed, playing by the Alpha rules.  No proxies.  No reprints.  No mulligans.  No play/draw rule.  No 4-of limit.  No sideboards.  No triple-sleeving.  Just 40 or more of the very earliest Magic cards shuffled up unsleeved or in old-fashioned clear plastic sleeves.

As soon as I heard about the tournament I wanted in!  Who could resist the chance to go back to the beginning of Magic?  And there was an obvious candidate deck to play…but to explain what deck and why I have to take you back to *my* beginning of Magic. 

Not many players these days (or ever, I suspect) get their DCI number by entering a Legacy tournament playing with an unsleeved deck that includes a main-deck Goblin Digging Team.  On June 21, 1999 that’s exactly what I did:

Black/Red deck by Scott Latham Type 1.5 tournament - Southsea, Hampshire, 21 June 1999
15 Swamp 10 Mountain 4 Erg Raiders 2 Bog Wraith 1 Barrow Ghoul 1 Cadaverous Knight 1 Dancing Scimitar 1 Dauthi Cutthroat 1 Dauthi Horror 1 Goblin Digging Team 1 Hidden Horror 1 Mountain Goat 1 Searing Spear Askari 1 Shadow Rider 1 Sorceress Queen 1 Squirming Mass 1 Wall of Diffusion 1 Wall of Heat 1 Wild Colos	4 Incinerate 2 Disintegrate 2 Lava Burst 2 Terror 2 Unholy Strength 1 Drain Life 1 Kaervek's Torch Sideboard: 2 Terror 1 Animate Dead 1 Ashes to Ashes 1 Bog Rats 1 Fit of Rage 1 Haunting Misery 1 Perish 1 Pyroblast 1 Seizures 1 Shatter 1 Tendrils of Despair 1 Trumpet Blast 1 Volcanic Dragon 1 Walking Wall

Not only do I have the decklist from this auspicious day, but this was before the digital age of WER and DCI reporter.  This was the age of the paper scorecard.  So I also have my scorecard!

Amazingly my janky Black/Red deck ended up with a 2-2 record.  The tournament winner is however lost to history. I’m guessing it was won by someone whose main deck had more than 2 rares (I had just Dancing Scimitar and Sorceress Queen).  However, what I have never forgotten from that day was the joy at winning some matches (I can play this game!  Against other people!  And beat them!!) and the chastening “headteacher’s study” telling off I got when the judge realised afterwards that I hadn’t de-sideboarded at any point during any round of the tournament*.

(*Side note: don’t explain sideboarding to brand new players as simply “your sideboard is 15 extra cards that you can swap in and out of your deck between games”.)

So of course, when 18 years later the Wizards Tournament came around there was an obvious candidate deck for me – a revival of this original Black/Red deck.  The only trouble was, when you look at that original list, it leans heavily on Arabian Nights and Ice Age.  Only nine of my main deck non-land cards are actually cards that even appear in Alpha.

However, it became clear that I could maintain the spirit of the deck (small to medium-sized creatures backed up by burn) whilst switching to Alpha cards and making the deck a bit stronger too.  Goodbye Incinerate and Lava Burst; hello Lightning Bolt and Fireball.  And - much as I love Goblin Digging Team – goodbye to the pure jank and hello to Orcish Artillery (wildly undercosted in Alpha at 1R) and Sengir Vampire (which being flying, un-Terrorable and beyond Bolt range is a serious threat in Alpha).

The tournament also finally presented an excuse for me to join the 1,100 club* by obtaining my first Alpha rare – Granite Gargoyle.  I actually ended up buying two copies of it, mirroring the two rares of my 1999 deck, and I had a smile on my face every time I got to play one of them. 

(*Side note: about 1,100 copies of each Alpha rare card were printed, hence my - confusing to some people - Facebook reference to “joining the 1,100 club” when I bought my first Alpha rare.  Sadly there isn’t actually a club for people who own Alpha rares, and nor is this a euphemism related to low-flying aircraft).

However, one creature from the original deck just had to stay.  Bog Wraith was one of my favourite cards when I started, but since my original ones were 5^th Edition, an Alpha Bog Wraith was the first card I bought the day after the tournament was announced.

Eventually after raiding my existing collection, scouring the trade halls at GP London, a few frantic late-night clicks on MKM, and a hand-delivered card from Magic Madhouse on the afternoon of the tournament (thanks Jason Savage!) I was able to sleeve up (into genuine 1990s clear Ultra Pro sleeves) the following 45 cards to take on the other Wizards:
 

The final build ended up as 11 creatures, 8 burn spells, and a bit of utility.  From the original 1999 list the only survivors ended up being 19 lands plus 2x Bog Wraith, 2x Terror, 1x Disintegrate and 1x Shatter (upgraded from the sideboard in 1999 to the main deck in 2018).  Very early on in deckbuilding I decided that there had to be 5 Lightning Bolts – not only is it the best red card but I couldn’t pass up the chance to legitimately* play 5 of something in a tournament!

(Side note*: I say “legitimately play” as when I made my Standard debut in 2004 I accidentally played 5 Welding Jars in my Affinity deck - 3 in my maindeck and 2 in my sideboard.)

The tournament was announced as being 5 rounds plus a final.  Having gone 2-2 in 1999, my ideal goal was to better that, although I will admit I was a little nervous as to what crazy decks might be out there, and whether I would win any games at all!

The pairings system for the Wizards Tournament was absurdly amazing: the judge (sorry “referee”) simply declared to the room: “Find someone to play and play them!”  As Round 1 was announced I was standing close to Leo Bruder, a German player.  Leo had come to the UK for a tournament in 2017 but we didn’t get chance to play then, so we both thought it would be fun to play here.  Leo won the match mainly through abusing two copies of Disrupting Scepter, which becomes a bit overpowered when “discard a card” is interpreted under Alpha rules as “discard a card from play if you don’t have a card in your hand”!

Round 2 saw me play another German, and someone I had often played on Skype but never in person.  Florian Von Bredow was as always a charming opponent, although his Fungusaur/Prodigal Sorcerer deck became my Red/Black’s first victim when he unfortunately accidentally revealed a Berserk from hand by starting to cast it and then changing his mind.  I was then able to hold mana up for Terror until the Berserk was finally played, nullifying the lethal strike and allowing me victory.

Round 3 gave me a chance for revenge against Old School scene legend Gordon Andersson.  He had defeated me on his home turf of Stockholm the previous month, and alas here proved again to be the stronger wizard, with his UR deck missing some of its usual Power but still with enough counter and burn to see me off. 

So at 1-2 I was going to have to win both of the final two rounds if Black/Red was to improve on its 2-2 from 1999.

In Round 4 I played the very friendly Braida Andrea from Italy.  We had some very good games - mainly with him playing a lot of Juggernauts and me bolting them.  However, the decisive moment came when I killed his Mahamoti Djinn, but crucially using Disintegrate to remove it from the game entirely.  Though he had Resurrection in hand, his Mahamoti was literally beyond the grave and couldn’t be recalled, leaving me the winner!

Finally, Round 5 was another chance for a re-match from Stockholm as I took on Bjorn.  Bjorn had an amazing deck and was playing his Alpha Power unsleeved - much respect for that!  However, again the Red/Black emerged victorious with Bog Wraith turning out to be good tech in this one against his blue/black deck.  Although I look concerned in the photo below, facing down a two Juggernauts with only my row of mountains, I then drew a Fireball which I split 3-3 to polish them both off and head on to victory.

So I finished 3-2 – improving my score from 1999, and having a lot of fun in the process, both reliving some nostalgia with Bog Wraiths and Disintegrate, and using my newly-purchased Gargoyles and Artilleries.  Marc Lanigra and Andreas Cermak, the two undefeated players, faced off in the final, with Marc’s amazing Alpha collection on full display as he and his 5 Sol Rings took the top prize! 

Reflecting on the day, of course there is a reason that the game’s rules evolved – Magic is not at its absolute best when you’re forced to keep a 0/7 land hand, when your opponent’s turn 1 is to play 2 Sol Rings, or when someone can destroy all your lands with a Disrupting Scepter.  However, it was still a very fun evening and a great excuse to buy lots of Alpha cards.  Whilst the Wizards' Tournament may go down in history as a one-off event, I have a sneaking suspicion that in the future this might turn out to have been “Wizards' Tournament I”.

Event Announcement: The Ryder Cup of Old School

In 1927 Samuel Ryder, a British seed merchant, emerged as the key donor behind the establishment of a bi-annual contest between two teams of golfers, one from the USA, the other from Great Britain and Ireland.  Going on to donate a gold cup for the competition, Ryder lends his name to one of the greatest events in global sport.

The Ryder Cup is a contest famous for its contested rivalry as well as for the class of its competitors.  Most notably of all, at the 1969 cup the USA's Jack Nicklaus conceded the final putt of the competition to Tony Jacklin, tying the contest - one of the greatest acts of sportsmanship of all time.

Following a period of American domination, the Ryder Cup is now contested between teams representing the USA and Europe. 

On Friday 30th 2018 two Old School communities, representing the USA and Great Britain and Ireland, will hark back to the founding of the Ryder, coming together to compete for The Ryder Cup of Old School.

The contest will be short but deadly, with the international teams duelling in Magic's oldest format: sudden-death Chaos Orb flips.  The winning team will carry the engraved trophy back to their homeland:

The Great Britain and Ireland team will feature a selection of founding members of London's Brothers Of Fire, while the US team will be centred on Chicago's Lords Of The Pit, with additional members drawn from across the fifty states.

The tournament will take place during down-time at N00bcon in Gothenburg and will be presided over by an impartial international judge (yet to be found).

Anachronisms in Old School, by Brother Jonas

What does a time-travelling hipster, legislation protecting workers, and the US Navy have to do with Old School?  Read on to find out....

anachronism

/əˈnakrəˌnɪz(ə)m/

• A thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, especially a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned.
• ‘The town is a throwback to medieval times, an anachronism that has survived the passing years’

(Oxford English Dictionary)

Spotting anachronisms is fun.  I know that others also enjoy it.  For example, yesterday I watched The Road To Perdition, a 2002 crime film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, set in 1931.

Whenever I finish a film I've liked, I head straight to IMDB to read the associated Trivia and Goofs.  Am I the only one that does this?  To me, this is the perfect way to end the experience.

Sure enough, the Goofs section (where eagle-eyed viewers log mistakes such as continuity errors or film equipment being visible in-shot) contained numerous observations of anachronisms that only the most pedantic nit-picker could possibly see.  These included a sighting of a tobacco brand in a shop set in 1931 that wasn't released until 1932.

This much tells me I am not the only one who loves to observe something out of place.

But it isn't just about picking up on mistakes.  Sometimes something can feel anachronistic, and this sensation - sometimes subtle, sometimes jarring - provokes a response in us.  This can be akin to the 'breaking of the fourth wall'.  A Shakespeare play performed in contemporary dress combines outmoded speech and a modern setting in order to create a certain frisson.

And the spirit of the anachronism also exists in other areas.  Note the collar-and-blazer throwback styling of Roger Federer - a man who seems to evoke something of the Golden Age of tennis.  Or the British politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, a man who plays up to the image of an Edwardian dandy, thereby creating a sense of distinction from the focus-grouped normality of his colleagues.

Or we can consider fiction. Will Ferrell's character Buddy in the classic Christmas caper Elf, or Fry in Futurama, or Sylvester Stallone's John Spartan in Demolition Man.  In different ways, these men evoke the values of the past and use their embodiment of something out of place creates intrigue.

l-r: blazered Federer, tea-sipping Mogg, idiot savant Buddy, unreconstructed man Spartan

Federer, Rees-Mogg, Buddy, and Spartan all evoke the spirit of the man appearing anachronistically from the past.  But this can happen the other way too.  Note the case of the "time-travelling hipster" below.  If you're not familiar, take a good look at the photograph:

Although the idea of the bare-headed man with modern dress, modern sunglasses, and a compact camera appearing in 1941 has been debunked (full story here), pictures such as this carry a mystique because they are about a thing appearing where it shouldn't.  

The human brain is trained to isolate differences because they present threats.  But anachronisms are a very special type of difference.

Okay Brother Jonas, so what does this have to do with Old School?

Well, I'm not about to argue that we who play this format - particularly those of us who, like me, play only this format - are somehow special because we are anachronisms.  Although I will say that the correct term for Savannahs and Tropical Islands is, and always will be, "multi-lands".  And secondly, language such as Bant and Grixis has no place in Old School.  If you must use a shortcut word to relate three colours, then there is no need to say 'Esper' when one can say 'Chromium'.

Leaving this personal hobby-horse aside, I'm interested in the world of Old School, and where anachronisms appear.  We are all used to Magic exhibiting many of the characteristics of a fairly standard fantasy time-period, with some augmentation by way of the Brothers' War.  But I've spotted three serious anachronisms in Old School and I'm on the hunt for more.  Because if Old School is a format could be argued to be an anachronism, then how cool is an anachronism within an anachronism?

Exhibit One: The Dominaria Health And Safety Code

If there are three things I love in Magic, it's colours doing stuff they aren't supposed to do (Psionic Blast, Fork, etc.), Goblins, and coin-flipping (I've even got my own coin-flipping deck with one of every flipping coin-flip card all the way up to Fallen Empires).  So unsurprisingly Goblin Artisans is one of my favourite cards of all time:

If this card was illustrated by Drew Tucker then we wouldn't need other cards

But - what about the headwear?  

Extensive research (er, a quick read of Wikipedia) informs me that yellow hard hats of this fibreglass construction are intended for "general labourers and earth-moving operators" and were popularised in the 1950s.  Not only do these Goblins display headwear from the future, but they've also somehow imported a rather un-Goblin-like attachment to health and safety culture.  Now call me a pedant, but I don't recall the Goblin Digging Team having anything approaching a policy designed to anticipate "injury due to falling objects, impact with other objects, debris, rain, and electric shock".

I call anachronism. 

Exhibit Two - Hipster Student

I can't take the credit for this one because it was brought to my attention by David Chambers who visited us in London to display a rather fun artifact-recursion-o-geddon deck (like any truly original deck it defies categorisation - needless to say it was a thing of beauty).

While playing him, he put a few of these guys down and caused me to look at them as I had never done before:

Okay, the glasses are fine - Urza has both glasses and rose-tinted sunglasses in Alpha.  But David's pet name for the fellow - "man in a t-shirt" - was the real Murder She Wrote moment.  A MAN IN A T-SHIRT.  This is the Antiquities equivalent of the time-travelling hipster.  Only without the debunking.

Verdict: First-class honours in Anachronism.  

Exhibit Three - Interdimensional War Dead

Okay, okay, you may not be sold on these two.  But what if I told you that a card had a definitive sighting of an unmistakably twentieth-century person?  Well, hold onto your anachro-pants.

The US navy of the 1940s and 50s - home to Frank Sinatra with one night on shore leave, old-style tattoos, and the bravest freedom-fighting seamen since the age of Nelson.  A historical entity rich in both flavour and valour.

BUT ALSO the spiritual home of blue zombies with a penchant for black mana.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Drowned.

Need a closer look?

And there we have it - a 1940s US sailor unmistakably appearing in the world of Old School.  How he got there?  I'm betting some kind of misconfiguration of the Obelisk of Undoing.  It's just as well he left his ship behind or else the poor old Pirate Ship would be at risk of being seriously outgunned.  By my calculations it would take at least 3 Aladdin's Rings to put a hole in the side of the USS Nimitz.

Verdict: Court Martial judges GUILTY.

----------------

So, thanks for reading this cantering through Old School lore.  And please let me know below if you find any anachronisms I missed.  We might have enough for a theme deck.

Notes From A Small Convention, by Brother Stebbo

Some diary entries from one London-based Old School obsessive...

Early January 2018, some weekday evening…

GP London is fast approaching, barely three weeks away. Excitingly this means that the thrill of the GP fair (i.e. vendors and artists) will be hitting up London town! 

GP London has been pretty good to me over the years. In fact, if I remember back hard enough……..

GP London, August 2015

Back in 2015 I was lucky enough to win some 1996 product (I had to endure many rounds of Modern, if it’s any consolation). I was 10 prize tix short of a third pack…

Long Suffering Friend, Samy (LSF): “What are you gonna spend your tix on?"

Brother Stebbo: “I think I’ll go for some Alliances”

LSF: “What’s in Alliances, just that rare card, Force of Will?”

Brother Stebbo: “Exactly. But it’s an UNCOMMON. There are about 2.6 per box of Alliances!

I know - I’ll get three packs - I’m bound to get one.

But i’m ten tix short... so gimme ten of your tix!”

*LSF rolls eyes*

Never tell me the odds!

GP London, October 2016

GP London came back a year later, which saw me snag several collectors' items: some swag from Old School artist Pete Venters (pictured below, kindly altering my playmat) and perhaps the rarest of all - a win over Brother Ben in a competitive Old School event! 

 Here’s Pete, and some pics from the side event...

  

Back to some weekday evening…

Disaster! My hopes of a clean sweep of GP London fun this year have been dashed!!

Brother Stebbo, reading the GP side event schedule…

A quick check of the GP website tells me that there are no Old School artists in attendance, and there is no Old School side event! Sadly the days of winning Alliances boosters are long gone, but I won’t even get the chance to compete for some Ixalan this time round…

Luckily we have COPcon V that weekend, which offers plenty of Old School. And, whatever the shortcomings of the event schedule, at least there will be vendors to trade with.

I then turn my attention to my phone. Brother Jonas is messaging me from the desolate surroundings of the GP venue. He is busy giving up this weekday evening to scout a venue for COPcon V, which is being hosted near to the big event to help those wanting to attend both.

Jonas has met with some early failures, with one of the pubs 'in contention’ resembling something from the set of Neighbours, c.1991. But persistence prevails and a suitable venue is eventually found!

 The COPcon back-up venue

Saturday 20 January 2018 (1 week before the GP)

Our Facebook group receives an unexpected surprise - legendary collector, personality, and vintage Magic expert Daniel Chang is going to be attending the GP and might even drop by COPcon!

I’ve done some business with Daniel over the years, but we’ve never actually spoken. Luckily for me this is all about to change. We are able to fit in a Skype conversation and make plans to meet up in London!

Thursday 25 January 2018 (1 day till the GP starts!)

Work commitments have kept me busy all week. This means I’ve not been able to prepare my loot of foil legacy and modern staples for the vendors at the GP.

The responsible thing to do would be to dedicate my final waking hours that evening to sorting my cards and constructing a price list, outlining what I’d like to get for certain cards, etc. Naturally what I actually do is waste several hours reading about Old School on the internet, before going to bed far too late!

Friday 26 January 2018, GP day 1!

I wake up late, and hastily scramble through my collection to assemble a veritable horde of shiny wares. My plan is to dazzle the vendors with my shiny cards, and in this moment of blindness and confusion, convince them to trade them for some Old School cards at good prices!

I get to the GP site just after lunch. The commute down highlights the quirks of the London Docklands location: I share my train with a mixture of City workers, fellow GP-goers, and the middle-aged attendees of a mechanical engineering exhibition...

The GP hall itself is enormous, but on day 1 and with the main event not kicking off until tomorrow, it’s only half-full and is easy enough to get around.

An artist’s impression of the GP London venue

I take a moment to stroll around the vendors. There are some real gems for sale, including a Richard Garfield-altered Balance! I also find probably the only bit of Alpha power available for less than £1,000.

 I then settle in for a mammoth three-hour trading session with my friend Benedict who works for one of the vendors. But it’s all worth it - as I come away with some '93-era multilands! 

 Many Foils died to bring us this information

That would probably be enough excitement for one day, but as they say: you sleep when you’re dead. Thus, I'm off to my next engagement: meeting up with Daniel.

Even having come all the way from the US, Daniel is kind enough to give up his evening to hang out and play some games of Magic. It’s a real blast to exchange stories about Old School collecting, community and strategy, amongst many other subjects of conversation. It's also really great to hear a little about some of the icons of Old School and Vintage Magic to whom I've always looked up, such as Steve Menendian and Brian Weissman. 

 Somehow I get the feeling my next spell isn’t resolving…

Saturday 27 January 2018. GP day 2 and COPcon!

Despite only having about six hours' sleep, I'm buzzing with excitement. Firstly I have some trading to finish with Benedict (which will be the subject of a future article…) before rolling over to the COPcon venue.

It's so great to see how far the London Old School scene has come. Two years ago, I organised the first meet, to dovetail with a Legacy/Vintage event at a local games store.  Back then, we were a bunch of fanatics meeting up in a South London pub. Now we're a much bigger bunch of fanatics meeting up in an East London pub!

It's the biggest event yet in the UK.  We have players from across Europe and even Daniel representing the US.  As well as those coming from abroad, we are joined by a host of UK players from outside London.  Some of them claim to be here for the GP, but we secretly know the main draw is COPcon…

At the end of the day I wind down by playing a relaxed Parfait mirror match against Brother Ben, which leads to this lairy boardstate…

Don’t mine if I do! [sorry…]

Credit has to go to Jonas and the Brothers Of Fire for organising a sick brand of Old School, played with relaxed vibes and great beers.

Sunday 28 January 2018

I wake up with a Juzam-sized hangover!...